Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

What began as a meeting of customers with a common concern has evolved to an industry forum.

Last week I had a conversation with Talisma CEO Dan Vetras and Vice President of Marketing Jim O'Farrell about the newly launched CIM Forum. CIM is an ancronym for customer interaction management; the CIM Forum is a "business and technology consortium" created to discuss best practices primarily related to online customer service . What's interesting about this launch is its double layer of customer focus.

First, it started because Talisma executives recognized the need to learn more from its customers about their challenges and needs in gaining their customers' adoption of online chat. "It's been fairly apparent to us the past few years that not a lot people knew was chat was outside the industry," Vetras said. With a market penetration of less than 5 percent and most of the early adopters being in the tech industry, it was time to make a change. So Talisma invited such powerhouse customers as AOL, IBM, Microsoft, and Pitney Bowes to join a conversation on the topic during its customer conference. "They all have their own views of how chat should work in a global way," Vetras said. "So we brought them all together." The meeting went well enough to spark formal monthly meetings and create a working document on best practices.

The second layer of customer focus is bringing what has now become the CIM Forum to a larger audience. Talisma has opened the conversation to any company interested in joining the dialog. Yes, as "founders" of the forum Talisma benefits from getting insight into more companies' challenges and interests concerning online customer service, possibly including those of it competitors' customers. But in the interest of best serving its own customers, Talisama is also putting its customers' challenges, interests, and best practices out there for all to easily see -- including its competitors. But that's not a concern for Talisma executives; they're most interested in building a community that serves the best interests of all involved -- with the ultimate goal of better serving the end customer or consumer who uses online customer service. "Our goal is to share knowledge, " O'Farrell explains. "Whoever is interested is encouraged and invited to join the Forum."

Have you come across, in your industry, a situation where was started as what might be considered a type of customer advisory board morphing into a forum designed to serve whole the industry?